Groundhog Day 2012

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray kept reliving the same day. As I scan the news around the world it seems we are caught in the same loop;

Everyday the financial press reports we are getting closer to a deal on the bailout for Greece. The bondholders are resigned to a haircut on their principal and interest, the government is looking at austerity measures, the northern Europeans are not happy but will agree to the funding, etc. And everyday the people of Greece indicate they will not go along with any of it. They want the money but are not willing to pay the price necessary to get their fiscal house in order. We are no closer to a deal today then we were last year at this time. In March of 2010 I wrote an article about the Greek crises and near as I can determine the people of Greece are not on board in any way at all and never have been.

The US Congress is talking about the extension of the payroll tax cut, the extension of unemployment benefits and a continued level of Medicare / Medicaid payments to doctors. This is the same piece of legislation they passed in December for two months because they cannot agree about anything. Today the same old arguments and accusations are flying around the halls of Congress. Why aren't the members of the House and Senate embarrassed about how dysfunctional they are? Don't we the people deserve better? In business everyone makes compromises all day long in order to get something done. All these politicians talk endlessly about the private sector. If any of them actually had to work in the private sector they would starve to death.